This qualitative study was conducted
to echo the voices of Korean-American teenagers as they defined their
ethnic identity. Utilizing qualitative interviews, focus group discussion,
analysis, and interpretation, we identified various dimensions of their
lives affected by the synthesis of Korean and American cultures. The youth
revealed the union of Korean and American values within the areas of
family relationships, Korean values, relationships with others, gender
roles,
and education. Our population found themselves living in a dualistic
environment because neither culture embraces them fully. However, as they
treasure aspects of both cultures, they are gradually transitioning into a
unique, blended culture of their own.

As educators in a society composed of a mélange of ethnic
minority groups, it is important to understand how these groups perceive their
ethnicities in relation to their traditional culture and to that of American
society. The purpose of this study is to illuminate Korean-American youths' view
of their bicultural identity as they transition from the Korean culture that comprises
their home life to the mainstream American culture in which they are schooled.
In so doing, we analyzed their perceptions of family relationships, Korean
values, relationships with others, gender roles,and education. The sum
total of this analysis reveals how they perceive their own ethnic identity and
where they position themselves in relation to American and Korean culture. [paragraph
1]

When ethnic minority groups such as Korean-Americans are
raised with the influence of more than one culture, they undergo a process of
change known as "acculturation" as a result of the "continuous contact between two distinct
cultures" (Phinney & Chavira, 1992,
p. 299). As they come in contact with other cultures, they "face the challenge of incorporating
those diverse influences into their ethnic identity" (Tse, 1999, p. 133).
"Ethnic Identity" is defined by Kwan & Sodowsky (1997) as
"the sum total of group members’ feelings about those values, symbols,
and common histories that identify them as a distinct group" (p. 51). [paragraph
2]

Numerous writers elucidate the issues facing ethnic minorities
as they adapt to American culture. Ibrahim and Ohnishi (1997) relate how a
person’s cultural identity is "anchored in a social-cultural
context" (p.34). The issues that affect the development of this identity
are "the larger culture, specific ethnic group of origin, community,
religion, type of neighborhood, social class, educational level, gender…, and
stage of development." These two writers also relate how understanding
ethnic identity involves "consciousness and knowledge of the cultural
characteristics of one’s own ethnic group" (Ibrahim and Ohnishi, 1997,
p.34). Adopting that ethnic identity, however, is another matter. According to Ibrahim and Ohnishi
some Asian Americans:

will strongly identify with many aspects of Asian American
ethnicity, but some will only acknowledge that they belong to an Asian
American ethnic group… they may deny that they have anything in common with
members of their ethnic group. Some may identify with their ethnic group to
the extent of knowing the history of the ethnic group and still see the ethnic
group as irrelevant today, and some others may identify socially with the
ethnic group but have no knowledge of its history. (p. 35) [paragraph
3]

Building upon Phinney and Chavira’s definition of
acculturation, Kim, O'Neil, & Owen (1996) describe two distinct forms
that acculturation may take: "High acculturation implies embracing the
values and beliefs of the host culture and low acculturation implies retaining
the cultural values and beliefs of another culture" (p. 96). In determining one’s level
of acculturation, Phinney and Chavira (1992) identify two key issues: "(a)
the extent to which individuals consider it of value to identify with and
maintain the cultural characteristics of their own ethnic groups and (b) the
importance one attributes to maintaining positive relationships with the larger
society and other ethnic groups" (pp.299-300). [paragraph
4]

Phinney and Chavira (1992) also identify four possible degrees
to which acculturation can take place in individuals. "Assimilation"
occurs when ethnic minorities identify only with the dominant culture, cutting
off all interaction with the ethnic culture of origin. The next level,
"integration," occurs when individuals identify strongly with both the
dominant and the traditional cultures and maintain intense involvement in both.
"Separation" occurs when ethnic minorities focus exclusively on the
values and practices of the culture of origin and distance themselves from the
dominant society. The final level, "marginality," occurs when one
cannot relate to either the culture of origin or the dominant culture. [paragraph
5]

Although Phinney and Chavira's four degrees of acculturation
provide us with a useful framework, Tse (1999) reminds us that one's ethnic identification
is not static. He identifies four distinct stages through
which ethnic minorities progress in developing identity within the dominant
culture. Stage one occurs before they attend school, and is characterized by
their unawareness of their minority status. Stage two occurs in childhood and
adolescence, when ethnic minorities develop a sense of negativity towards their
culture of origin. In this stage, they typically gravitate towards the values
and practices of the dominant culture. Stage three, "ethnic emergence,"
takes place in adolescents and young adults when ethnic minorities arrive at
the conclusion that they cannot be fully integrated into the dominant culture
due to their minority status. At this point, ethnic minorities move to the
fourth and final stage in which "they join the ethnic minority American
group… and resolve many of their ethnic identity conflicts" (pp.121-122).
[paragraph 6]

With the theoretical frameworks of Phinney and Chavira and Tse
we employed the qualitative research paradigm to study the ethnic identity
formation of Korean-American youth. Our study took place at a
Korean American Presbyterian Church located in suburban Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. We chose a church setting because we understood Korean ethnic
churches provided places for Korean-American youth to gather regularly.
This church held two services concurrently: one delivered in Korean for the older
generation and the other held in English for the
youth. The youth service is attended weekly by 20-25 teenagers from 6th grade
through 12th grade. The youth group, lead by Korean-American seminarians, also had
weekly fellowships on Fridays and other spiritual and social activities
throughout the year. During the two-month fieldwork in 2000 we observed the
youth services and participated in a few fellowships. We also joined a
fellowship meeting at one of the members' houses. We interviewed individually
and in a focus group seven (four males and three females) volunteer youth ranging in age from twelve to eighteen.
Six of the seven youth
were US-born Korean-Americans and one was born in Korea and moved to
North America at around the age of six. The group as a whole came from
middle-class suburban families and was fluent in English and semi-fluent in
Korean. [paragraph 7]

After being introduced to the youth leader, we spent our first two
sessions doing participant observation, establishing rapport with the youth and
the leader,
and identifying key informants. Literature review and our initial
participant observation provided the foundation for
the questions that we asked during the subsequent individual interviews. The individual
interviews were comprised of 53 questions that asked for information related to
demographics, family life, education, friends/activities, gender, cultural
identity, and spiritual life. After individual interviews were completed, we
interviewed in a focus group the seven youth whom we had interviewed privately. The group discussion took
approximately one hour. The questions centered around the following topics:
attitudes of youth while visiting Korea, separate worship service, people they
interacted with, education, family, traditional Korean values, gender, and
general questions of interest. The group discussion was
recorded by hand and by audio-tape. The group interview data was later qualitatively analyzed through
personal reflection and compared with individual interview and observation data. It was also
subjected to the discussion and confirmation of the three researchers1 to allow
the triangulation of the data. [paragraph 8]

Family relationships were the most significant source of Korean
values for these youth. Because their parents were raised in Korea, solely with
Korean customs, they, for the most part, raised their youths with the
traditions of their old country. The most significant traditional Korean
values which families imparted to the youth included respect for elders, sacrifice
for the sake of the family and the importance of education. These values were
modeled in family relationships and transferred to the generation we studied,
despite significant cultural conflicts occurring between the youth and their
parents. [paragraph 9]

Parental sacrifice was key to the success of the family.
According to Lee (1991), "most parents are ready to sacrifice academic or
recreational comfort for the success of their children" (p. 148). The
youth clearly realized that their parents’ sacrifice was for the betterment of
their generation. It was for this reason that most of these families had moved
to the U.S., sometimes leaving occupations of greater status in Korea for jobs
in the U.S. that required long hours of physical labor. As one of our
participants stated, "I want to take care of my parents because … they
work hard and now at the point in time where I realize how much they do, how
hard they work. It’s all … towards my sister, my brother, and I." [paragraph
10]

Because they so appreciated this sacrifice, they reciprocated
this sense of obligation to the family by desiring to care for their parents
when they reached retirement age. Through academic success and attaining a
well-paying job, these youth hoped to be able to provide for their parents in the
future. Many of the youth voiced this desire: "it’s not that
you have to, it’s that you want to. You want to take care of your
family."This tendency was observed by Lee (1991), who wrote
that "[t]he need for accomplishment in ... Korean ... people is expressed
in the context of a strong sense of responsibility and obligation to one’s
family" (p. 149). [paragraph 11]

The youth clearly respected the sacrifices that their parents
made for them. As Lee (1991) wrote, "interpersonal harmony and the
closeness of [Korean] family have been achieved by the sacrifice of the
individual for the good of the family" (p. 148). The youth realized that this
sacrifice was a demonstration of their parents’ love for them, and they
reciprocated their love with gratefulness and respect. This respect was key to
Korean family relationships and was demonstrated to parents by children’s
obedience to them. Sandhu (1997) stated that "[t]here is a hierarchical
order in Asian families’ relationships, and proper respect for this hierarchy
is considered crucial" (p. 12). The youth related how they were expected not
to talk back to their parents because this was considered disrespectful. [paragraph
12]

However, this did not prevent conflicts from occurring.
Cultural and generational differences often constituted a communication gap
between the youth and their parents. Because these youth were accustomed to
American society, the American culture penetrated the parent-child relationship.
Youth described how they found it difficult to relate to their parents because of
their upbringing in different societies: "I feel a lot of things or
problems I go through they can’t relate to. … I mean, they’ve been living
here a long time, but they don’t know what goes around that much. They’re
very clueless on that part.… A lot of the problems I have I really can’t
tell my parents because I know they won’t understand." However, other
participants related how they felt they were growing closer to their parents as
they matured and reached young adulthood. The ease of communication with parents
also increased with parents’ increased facility in English. When parents could
more easily relate to non-Korean Americans and spoke more English at home with
their children, the youth felt they could better relate to them. [paragraph
13]

Korean Values

Respect was one of the most important Korean Values passed on
by the parents to their children. As one of our research participants said,
"it’s all about respect." Tangible and intangible manifestations of
respect surfaces within Korean traditions. Respect played an important role in
family relationships and was a staple in the celebration of traditional Korean
customs. As Feng (1994) related, "... many Asian American parents teach
their children to value educational achievement, respect for authority, feel
responsibility for relatives, and show self control." They were also taught
to respect standards of morality and conduct. [paragraph
14]

Tangible examples of respect were found in the practice of
bowing to one’s elders, which was especially important to do on New Year’s
Day.
It was even required to bow to someone who was only a year older according to
some youth. They described how this tradition would continue throughout one’s life. However,
adherence to strict Korean values was beginning to diminish within their lives.
Due to their immersion in American society, they were beginning to judge these
Korean customs by the standards of American culture. As one participant
expressed, "It’s taken… too seriously… I don’t think one year or
two years older should be [bowed to]." [paragraph
15]

Relationships with Others

Although they were beginning to synthesize both Korean and
American values within their ethnic identities, the extent to which they
identified with Korean values comprised a significant aspect of their
relationships with others; strengthening their relationships with other Korean
Americans and driving a wedge between their relationships with non-Korean
Americans. They identified material and immaterial differences as barriers to
communication with other races. The importance to these youths of the material
differences between the cultures was demonstrated by the remarks of one of our
participants:

And one thing that used to bother me was when I used to have
friends over … I’d take off my shoes and they wouldn’t understand cause
they’re not really used to it. But Koreans … know each other cause we’re
all alike. For example, there’s Korean food… it smells and stuff… [but]
Korean kids, like, they know, they’re like, "Yeah, I’ve got that at my
house, that’s cool." [paragraph 16]

Material differences from the dominant society were significant
to these students in that they were indicative of immaterial cultural differences
between themselves and non-Korean Americans. These immaterial differences,
particularly those between whites and Korean Americans, often inhibited the two
groups from intimate communication. Tse (1999) indicated that Korean American
adolescents often reached a point of awakening at which they realized that they
were
different from white Americans and that they had generally been uncomfortable
with white Americans. One of our participants described this exact phenomenon:
"When I was…in sixth grade, my class was…all white kids. I think I
realized later…that I didn’t fit in. I knew there was something…some
differences between us.… After meeting [Korean kids]…I was just so much
more comfortable. I could just relate." [paragraph
17]

This principle can be observed in dating relationships as
well. When we asked each participant if they would prefer to date a Korean-American or a non-Korean American, many of them stressed their affinity for
dating Korean Americans. One respondent conveyed the reason for this, which
others corroborated in the group discussion: "there’s just certain things
that we don’t mix.… We have differences. We grew up in different ways and
we have different parents and standards are different." [paragraph
18]

However, they could not relate fully with students who had
recently emigrated from Korea, either. Some of the youth said that these students, termed "F.O.B’s"
or "Fresh off the boat," segregated themselves from Korean- Americans.
"They talk…within themselves and they speak Korean at school," one
youth said. One student even termed their relationship to be like a "war
zone." That student proceeded to explain: "If Korean kids hang out
with white people, they call them ‘bananas,’ because they’re yellow
outside but white inside." [paragraph 19]

As many of their responses indicated, these Korean-American
youths clearly found cultural unity and affirmation of their state of being
"between" American and Korean cultures within the company of other
Korean American youth who had had experiences similar to their own. Indeed,
most of the youth indicated that their closest friends were Korean Americans and
that they spent most of their time with Korean Americans, due to the comfort
level brought on by their similarity of culture and understanding of one another’s
material and immaterial differences from the mainstream society. One might say
that they, as a group, had the "same" differences from the mainstream
society both in material cultural artifacts and immaterial standards and values and
that, because of this, they are able to find the acceptance and
affirmation from one another which provides them with support and identity. As
per above, Tse (1999) described this phenomenon. In their fourth and final stage
of ethnic identity formation, he wrote that ethnic minority youth and young adults
would eventually come to seek identity with the ethnic minority group, thus
solving many of the ethnic conflicts that emerged from clashes between the
dominant and family cultures. [paragraph 20]

Gender Roles

Other influences of the synthesis of American and Korean
values were perceived within the gender-role identity of the youth. Kim, O’Neil,
& Owen (1996) described how "gender-role acculturation" occures when
"the dominant cultures’ gender-role values affect or change the
individual’s perception of masculinity and femininity" (p. 96). Korean
and American perceptions of gender roles intersected and often clashed in the lives
of these youth, as these writers described, because they were "affected by
the gender-role norms of the dominant culture but might also retain the strongly
socialized gender-role values of their families and former culture" (p.96).
The youth in our study clearly demonstrated these characteristics. They related
their understanding of Korean gender roles when describing how in Korean society females typically
did the cooking and cleaning, and were expected to be
submissive. They perceived males as stronger, more dependable and favored within the family.
[paragraph 21]

Although the youth recognized and identified these traditional
values, in some areas they were breaking away from them in their
self-definition of gender roles. At one youth group gathering, we observed the
mother cooking the meal and the female youth serving others the food and
clearing away the dishes after dinner. The students related how this was typical
of Korean society and the females said they had been introduced to this at an
age as young as five years old. The males believed that there was more pressure
placed on them in their families to show respect and be responsible,
particularly in areas of education. As one male participant related, "in
Korean tradition, the oldest [male] takes care of the younger kids… everything
depends on me…like, if my brother gets bad grades, it counts on me for not
helping him." [paragraph 22]

Though they described how education was traditionally not
stressed as highly for the females, due to their ability to be supported by
their well-educated husbands, the youth did not appear to personally endorse
this view. Both males and females all expressed clear occupational and
educational goals for themselves that included a study beyond the college level.
One female participant hoped to attain "the highest
possible" level of education. This was generally the response from all the
female participants (as well as the males), revealing that they did not
personally adhere to the idea that females should be less educated than their
male counterparts. Nor did the females indicate that they, personally, would rely
upon the educational achievement of their future spouses. [paragraph
23]

Education

For both males and females, education had been stressed by
parents from the time they were young. Their education was often supplemented with
numerous enrichment programs, even at a young age, and parents continued to
encourage them in good study habits throughout their schooling. Much pressure
was
placed on them to get into a reputable college, they told us. These youth have
therefore internalized the value of education as well as the motivation and
ability to perform well in school. As noted before, much of these students’
intrinsic motivation for their long-term career goals involved the obligation
they felt to support their parents in their retirement. As Lee (1991) related,
"academic achievement is not a personal matter for children but is related
to the honor of the family." [paragraph 24]

All of these dimensions of culture constitute the realization
of ethnic identity transition that was occurring in the lives of these young
people. They were coming to synthesize American and Korean values to varying
degrees within each of these areas in their lives and to define their ethnic
identity based upon this unification. This is a complex process for these
youths.
When asked if they would define themselves as Americans or as Koreans, their
answers reflected the complexity of ethnic self-identification: when surrounded by Americans, they
felt more distinctly
Korean, yet while in Korea or when in the company of their Korean families, they
felt more distinctly American. [paragraph 25]

As Das & Kemp (1997) describe, "the longer one stays
in North America ... the more one gets used to life here, and it becomes harder
to face the prospect of returning to one's country of origin" (p. 25). When
many participants returned to Korea, they discovered that this was true of their
experience. Though it was a positive experience for most of them, they depicted
various cultural boundaries that inhibited them from fully participating in the
society. Cultural barriers included language, socio-economic differences, and
differences in traditional values. The gap presented by these differences was
described poignantly by one participant: "If I was in Korea and I had a
friend, I couldn’t talk to him, because the only way I could talk to him was
respectfully, the way you would speak to your parents. …I only really know how to
speak that way. I can’t speak casual, so it doesn’t make any sense." [paragraph
26]

The need to adapt to the conflicting value structures of both
Korean and American cultures in these different areas of their lives presented a
challenge to these youth. One of the participants described the challenge as
such:
"what causes a lot of the problems because it’s the way you’re born
with your family one way and then you live in a different culture so you have to
learn to adapt to that way too. So, you have both cultures kind of mixing in and
they don’t really mix that well." To accommodate these conflicts, the
youth were clearly retaining some Korean values and customs that were significant
in their lives, while adopting some American values that they had gained from
the dominant culture. The same student described this transition to more
"American" ways of thinking: "I learned to adapt to both cultures…
I am adapting more to American culture now. … I see like in 20 years when…
all my friends grow up and we become parents it’s going to be a lot different.
… I think by then … we’ll all be living way more in American culture than
Korean." [paragraph 27]

This transitional phase separated them from both the Korean
values of their parents and from becoming a fully integrated part of American
mainstream culture. As they were synthesizing both Korean and American values
into their ethnic identity, they were not fully assimilating to American culture
(Phinney & Chavira, 1992). Rather, they were discovering
"what parts of themselves are Asian and what parts are American" ( Tse,
1999, p. 122). Because they were unable to relate fully to
either culture, they found self-definition and support through their
relationships with other Korean American youth, who were experiencing these same
vital conflicts and changes. As Tse (1999) related, they were entering the fourth
stage, "ethnic identity incorporation," in which they identified
themselves more fully with the ethnic minority group. As these youth faced
similar issues, they were, together, a generation in transition. [paragraph
28]

Lee, Y. (1991). Koreans in Japan and in the United States. In
M.A. Gibson and J. U. Ogbu (Eds.), Minority status and schooling: A
comparative study of immigration and involuntary minorities (pp. 131-168).
New York: Garland Publishing.

Charlie
Swan,
a graduate of Eastern College with a
B. A. degree in History, recently received his master's degree in Multicultural
Education at Eastern College. He will be teaching social studies at an international school in
Taejon, South Korea.

Jill
Weissbrot is
a graduate student in Multicultural Education at Eastern College. As a graduate
assistant she has assisted in the development of a virtual research center,
Global Center for Applied Research, at Eastern College. She has her Bachelor's
degree in English from the University of Connecticut. She plans to teach English
at the secondary level.